Housing benefits

You can claim housing benefits if one of the following applies to you:

• you are a pensioner: Check if you qualify as a pensioner
• you live in temporary accommodation provided by Brent Council because you are homeless. This can be in Brent or outside the borough.
• you live in supported accommodation provided by a housing association, a registered charity, or a not-for-profit voluntary organisation. View further information on supported accommodation.

If none of the above apply to you, check to see if you are eligible to apply for housing costs via Universal Credit.

Who can’t claim housing benefit

You cannot claim if you and/or your partner:

• have more than £16,000 savings
• are a full-time student unless you are any of the following:
  • disabled
  • a single parent
  • a couple with children and one of you is a student. The person who is not a student will need to apply
• do not pay rent at the property you live in
• are seeking asylum or cannot get government support.

Check before you apply

Use our benefits calculator to work out what you might get, check what other help is available and understand how a change to your situation (like working more hours or earning more) could affect your benefits.

Please note: The calculator gives an estimate based on what you enter. It does not guarantee you’ll get Housing Benefit.

You can apply for Housing Benefits online using My Account.

If you don’t already have an account, it only takes a few minutes to set one up using your email address.

Once registered, activate your benefits account and submit your application.

Make sure you read the steps below before starting your application.

Before applying

Note that the person claiming housing benefit must complete the form themselves or with an appointee.

Documents you will need

You’ll need to provide different types of evidence depending on your situation. This could include evidence of:

• you and your partners identity such as a passport, driving licence or birth certificate
• you and your partners national insurance number
• rent that you pay for your property
• you and your partners earnings
• you and your partners bank accounts
• benefits, allowances or pensions for you, your partner and any other adults living with you
• any other income for you, your partner and any other adults living with you

Make sure you have all the information you need before you start so that you can add your evidence when you apply online.

Ask for your claim to be backdated

You can ask us to pay your benefits from an earlier date. This is called backdating.

You must have a good reason for not applying earlier.

• If you are working age, your Housing Benefit can be backdated for one month.
• If you are pension age, your Housing Benefit can be backdated up to three months.

You can ask for backdating when you fill in your housing benefit form.

If you need help with your application

You can visit one of our local Brent Hubs, located across Brent, where our staff can help you to complete any council-related forms.

If you have difficulty in visiting us in person or are housebound, please call us on 0208 937 1800 in order for us to determine whether we need to visit you to help you claim Housing Benefit.

The way we pay your Housing Benefit depends on what type of tenant you are.

Council tenant

Your Housing Benefit is paid weekly and goes directly into your rent account.

Housing Association tenant

Your Housing Benefit is paid every four weeks in arrears (meaning it covers the previous four weeks) and is sent directly to your Housing Association.

Private tenant

Your Housing Benefit is usually paid every four weeks in arrears via BACS directly into your chosen bank account. It may take up to 3 working days for the funds to appear.

In certain cases, we can pay your landlord directly. When your benefit amount is confirmed, both you and your landlord will be notified.

Understanding your entitlement

When you make a new claim or inform us about a change in your circumstances, we'll send you a notification advising you how much benefit you are entitled to and how we calculated it.

Check your claim details

You can view your benefit payment details by logging into My Account and check your claim summary.

If you rent from a social or private landlord, we will share information about your Housing Benefit with them. We do this to reduce the risk of you falling behind with your rent.

We share information with your landlord through a secure portal. When they access the portal, your landlord will be able to see:

• any overpayment amount and weekly recovery rate
• the weekly entitlement
• details of any historic payments
• status of the Housing Benefit claim
• whether a claim is suspended or not
• future payment amount and due date.

We won’t give your landlord any information about:

• your personal and family circumstances
• reasons for suspension or cancellation
• any additional information we have requested from you
• whether you are in receipt of a Discretionary Housing Payment.

If you're self-employed, you may be eligible for Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Support. We'll assess your income from self-employment, along with any other income you or your partner receive, to work out if you are entitled to benefit.

To begin your claim, you’ll need to complete a Housing Benefit application form to obtain a claim reference number. Be sure to indicate that you are self-employed in the form. Once your application is submitted, an Assessment Officer will contact you.

After receiving your reference number, you can then complete the self-employed application form.

How we assess self-employed income

If you're self-employed and applying for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support, we assess your income based on your net profit - not your gross income.

You must provide:

• all business income (including interest from business accounts, tips, commission, and royalties)
• any other household income (from you or your partner)

To calculate your income figure we will:

• look at your income for a set period
• ask you to list your expenses
• decide which expenses we can allow and subtract these from your income
• deduct any relevant Tax and National Insurance contributions.

The end figure is your net profit which we will use, along with any other income, to calculate your benefit entitlement.

Eligible business expenses

You must provide a full breakdown of your expenses. Only those that are 'wholly and exclusively' related to your business will be considered for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support purposes.

The rules for eligible business expenses under Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support are different to those used for Income Tax. For example, depreciation and business entertainment costs are not taken into account in our assessment.

Changes to your income

We usually assess your income based on the previous financial year’s accounts. However, if there’s a big change in your self-employment, we may re-assess your entitlement within a financial year.

You must inform us of any changes, such as:

• significant increase or decrease in income
• a change in the nature of your business.

If you have been paid more Housing Benefit than you’re entitled to, you’ll need to pay this back. This is called overpayment.

Informing you of an overpayment

An overpayment can be recovered from the person who claimed or received the payment. This maybe you, your landlord or someone else who received the benefit on your behalf.

We’ll write to you and tell you the reason for the overpayment, the dates and amount you’ve been overpaid.

If you disagree with an overpayment decision you must ask us to review the decision within one month.

How we recover the overpayment

• We’ll make weekly deductions from the amount we pay you until you pay the overpayment back.
• If your Housing Benefit stops and there is still an overpayment, you’ll be sent an invoice for the amount. You’ll need to repay this back.
• If you are a council tenant, using any credit that you may have on your rent account.

Paying the overpayment

You can pay the overpayment online or via the phone using a debit or credit card. You will need the 6- or 7-digit invoice number, quoted on the invoice we sent you.

Overpayments Team: 020 8937 2589
Automated Phone Line: 020 8937 1717

Help to manage overdue payments

We understand that managing arrears (overdue payments) can be challenging, especially during difficult financial times. That’s why we have teamed up with Payment Plan and Webio, to offer secure, flexible options to help you stay on top of your Council Tax or Housing Benefit overpayments.

With this new service, you can:

• pay your arrears in monthly instalments
• choose a payment date that works for you
• set your own monthly payment amount
• spread the cost over a timeframe that fits your budget
• do all of this with no added fees or interest

Payment Plan is a secure platform, and if you are contacted by them or receive a message from Webio, it is a legitimate service being used by Brent Council to support residents in managing their arrears. The aim is to provide straightforward options that put you in control and reduce the stress of dealing with debt.

We're working to make debt recovery fairer and more compassionate, while still helping you stay on top of your payments.

If you have arrears and receive a message from us, please know it's genuine. You can follow the link provided or reach out to the Revenues and Debt team directly if you’d like more information or support, we’re here to help.

Special payment arrangement

If you are having problems paying back your overpayment, we can discuss and agree a reasonable and affordable repayment arrangement with you.

If you would like to discuss a repayment arrangement or to change how you are paying an overpayment, please contact our benefit enquiry team using the details on this page.

If you don’t pay

You must make all payments on time. If we do not receive payment on time, further action will be taken. To avoid this, contact our benefit enquiry team using the details on this page.